Morning Coffee: Some Astonishing Stats For Padres Hitters

12 hits last night against Tim Hudson!  Fantastic! Six of the Padres’ position players raised their season batting averages in the game. Not that it was hard to do. Heck, a 1-for-4 would have raised the averages of five of the starters.  But let’s enjoy it while we can. A win is a win, and two blowout wins in a row over the first-place Giants after the week we’ve had is both completely unexpected and  a welcome relief.

Before the game, I was looking at the batting averages of the Padres.  Not as a team, but as individuals.  Up and down the lineup, you find guys hitting much much worse than we expected them to. First I looked at Chase Headley, and his .200 average.  I expected this guy to hit in the .280-.290 range.  After getting healthy after last year, I didn’t expect him to hit 30 homers, but I did expect the average to come back.  Last year was his career worst in batting average, but that was FIFTY points higher than he’s hitting this year.  That’s astonishing.  What is far more astonishing can be found in the table below.

• Of the 13 Padres with the most at-bats this season, 10 are batting below their career averages.
• Six of them are batting at least 47 points below their  career averages.
• Nine of them are batting at least 18 points below the worst averages of their careers.
• Six Padres are batting at least 29 points below the worst averages of their careers.  Let that sink in for a minute.
• Four are hitting at least 40 points below the worst averages of their careers.

Those four are Will Venable, Chase Headley, Yonder Alonso, and Jedd Gyorko.  Think the Padres were counting on them to do a little hitting this year?

You may draw your own conclusions as to why this is happening.  But whatever the reason, it’s absolutely mind-boggling that nearly 70% of the team is having the worst year of their career.